


Morning Hike

by LunaUlric



Category: Final Fantasy XV, Kingsglaive
Genre: Cagefighter AU, F/M, Fanfic Request, Prison AU, lunyx, otp: the princess and the glaive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2018-12-14
Packaged: 2019-09-17 21:34:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16982205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LunaUlric/pseuds/LunaUlric
Summary: Prison AU/Cagefighter AU; Ex-convict Nyx and Therapist LunaNyx hikes through the hills and embraces the great view and his fresh start at life.------**This is a requested fic on tumblr**theycallmedarling asked: More moments with Nyx THOSE PRECIOUS PUPPOS!! Perhaps those wonderful morning hikes he’s grown so fond of going on :)





	Morning Hike

**Author's Note:**

> Personally, I think it’s a bit of a mess but I hope you enjoy it nevertheless as this is Nyx with the doggos on their morning hike. 
> 
> Also please take note that the romantic LuNyx aspect of this AU is in the aftermath of Nyx's "troubled" life.

He felt the pull of the blanket while he was sitting at the edge of the bed and finishing the knots on his shoes. From the corner of his eye, he sighted her stirring some more, pulling more of the blanket with her while hiding bare feet to escape the chill. The cold indeed bit the skin and the morning was serene. And yet it didn’t look like actual morning. The sky beyond the windows cast a hue where the stars could still thrive with their distant flickering. Streets have yet to clamor of the rush hour and only bore distant rumblings of the early risers and people who started their business in quiet tinkering and the lamp posts with their seemingly undying light.    **  
**

He stared beyond the window for a bit because he thought he caught a glimpse of the first twinkle of sunrise.

She stirred again. He began to worry that being up might’ve caused too much of a ruckus, even with how careful he was. Maybe the dogs with their excited paws in the hallway had added to disturbance. Halfway through putting on a shirt, he gently dipped with his knees into the empty side of the bed, parted the strands of the messy blonde with his calloused fingers and gifted the exposed part of her shoulder with a kiss. Soon after, he moved onto the cheek just to make it up to her.

With a voice telling that half of her thoughts were still in the land of dreams, Luna muttered against the pillow “Stay safe.”

“I will,” Nyx whispered. “I’ll be back before coffee.”

One last kiss, this time on the forehead, and she uttered a lazy hum akin to expressing delight or comfort, hugging the loose part – his part – of the blanket before sinking back into slumber.

Nyx gently got off the bed, putting on the rest of his shirt, grabbed his pack and opened the door. Two smiling faces greeted him. Their tails wag of eagerness, they pant with tongues out as if the wait had already made them tired. Their human was slow, they would complain. Pryna had kept herself silent as opposed to Umbra who proceeded to continue circling around the hardwood floor- tapping away in juvenile glee. He told them to be quiet with a finger on his lips even though these dogs were never trained to understand the gesture. When the more excitable dog didn’t respond to it, the man decided to head out with them on the leash quickly before more of his wife’s precious sleep is robbed.

And the next part of the routine came quick. A dash through the stairs and a swift setup into the jeep. He turned the key and the engine came alive like the horizon that began to release the real light. The dogs sniffed the air. They knew they’re not there yet but they sought it in the air. They knew they’re heading that way where the pavement cuts off before a narrower and bumpier trail, where the trees grew larger and higher.

“Ready?” he asked them.

They barked as if they understood. Most of the time, he liked to think they know what he was talking about.

The drive was undisturbed and soundless under the shadows of buildings and trees. The pups enjoyed the wind as always, sticking out their heads to catch it with flapping tongues. His mind eased some more as the road changed into to the rockier and winding parts. This was where thoughts flew into the ocean-like sky. Memories of the contrasting images form like a slideshow to remind him that this wasn’t his life nor did he ever envision it like this.

 _What will be your life in the next twenty years?_  said Nyx’s high school teacher whose name he barely remembered.

She even wrote it on the blackboard for everyone to see as if some might not understand what it meant still. While his classmates scribbled away their answers, he stared at the blank paper with no intention of ever filling it. The lack of effort on his part was very well known in the class. He was the guy who picked fights in the hallways whenever delinquents twice his size taunted him with a look. He was the one who’d join the punks at the back of the gymnasium smoking something they shouldn’t be while spray painting profanity on the brick walls to claim their territory.

What will be his life in the next twenty years?

He joined a gang by the time he turned nineteen. It wasn’t planned but everyone expected so, except for his sister. It was good money and better thrills. His fists meant more and had bigger rewards. He ignored cuts and bruises. And He still never had a concrete answer to that question but his life was going through an obvious path.

He went to prison by thirty. Screwed up big time with a heist that his gang couldn’t control. The ending to their flimsy attempt was an image of him with a freshly fired gun on his shaky hand and a dead gang leader on the floor. The dead man’s hands turned limp on the knife and the crying hostage’s sleeve. The cop slammed his head on the car’s hood as he was cuffed tightly. He just stared into the open space where the blue and red lights flashed as the last scene replaying over and over in his head.

Finally, the answer was on that empty piece paper.

Umbra barked when Nyx was taking too long to get out of the jeep.

“Patience” he simpered to the eager dog. It was always the human to get off first before them. Just a dog’s habit to follow along behind their human. He grabbed his pack, wore it on his back and whistled for them to jump off. They gracefully did, running through loose rock and taking over him to the incline of the path. The hike shouldn’t take too long – maybe a couple of hours if they didn’t stop too many times. Nyx could tell by the sun’s emergence from the hills that he would be able to keep that promise of coffee in the morning.

The mountainous area offered a myriad of man-made trails. Some are steep, more challenging. Others were wider and more likely catered for those who took this task for the first time. This wasn’t Nyx’s first time. If he counted correctly, he had gone through this particular steep trail maybe close to sixty or seventy times already. He has pictures on the fridge door to prove it.

With every step, he relished the sound of the earth underneath his boot and the wind that hums down on him and in between trees, urging him to continue rising up through the snaking path in this wilderness. The dogs ran around, smelling, digging and going back to the path. They chased critters, barked at birds, took sticks that were too large for them to carry all the way. Once in a while, he rested on a boulder or on a stable log to catch his breath and drink from a bottle he brought in his pack. He whistled to the dogs to join him in the short break. They return to his side, panting and smelling like dirt already. He gave them water too. And he stared into the trees, the mist, the fallen leaves, and the slope of the whatever distant hills he could have sight on. And he sucked in the fresh forest air and exhaled feeling something close to euphoria.

There was no other way but up.

After breaks, they passed through arching trees with more vegetation stuck on their bark. He often called for Pryna who kept sniffing on the moss covered log and whistled for Umbra who just couldn’t forget about that squirrel. He needed to keep them on the trail now. The path was steeper now that he needed to hold on to branches and the trees themselves as he moved further. The dogs were getting too excited – a sign that their destination is close.

“Wait up!” he called to them. He could only laugh when they ignored. So much for waiting for their human.

The trees were growing scarce, opening up to the sky that was lighter in tint. After that one last step, he saw the dogs staring at the beauty. The spans of the sky surrounded the yellow ball just above the city-built skyline. Yellow mixed with blue and it almost looked like the greatest of artists had painted the entirety of it. He had tried to take pictures before but it always looked better in person. It was probably why he kept coming back.

The dogs sat and rested on the ground right next to their favorite tree. Nyx sat in between them, stretched his legs and leaned on the bark behind him. Umbra’s head moved and rest on his lap. Pryna nudged her nose on his side. He stroked their fur and scratched the sweet spot behind their ears. He could feel them sigh in rest and he joined them in that action.

The slideshow of his life slowly interrupted serenity again but not all of it. Never entirely. The colors and images grow from dark to light, going through winding paths, steep trails, and shadowy forests until there was the sky. Until there was the sun. The question on the blackboard was already answered before but only briefly. No one ever expected this, not even himself. It’s as if he had erased the answer written on that paper and painted something like this: the sky on top of the hill, the dogs on his side, the towering evergreens with birds nesting on its branches, and the thought of coffee with his lovely wife when he gets back.

This was the image gifted with a twinkle of sunrise. Not just a mere picture, but life itself.

Nyx lifted his head to the breathtaking view and smiled.


End file.
